Nintendo Let Literally Anyone (With Money) Make Famicom Games

In 1984, Nintendo released Family BASIC, a programming suite for its Famicom (NES) console. Including a swish keyboard and data recording unit, it was designed to allow consumers to, with a little teaching, program their own basic games for the system. Including a few stock titles as templates, it was sadly never released outside Japan.…

StarCraft Was Once a Busted Pile of Crap

Blizzard isn’t just famous for its games, it’s famous for a lengthy and considered development output. It’s one of a privileged few studios in the world that can say “we’ll release the game when it’s ready”, and really mean it. The agonising wait fans have to endure for new Blizzard games is testament to this.…

Dungeons & Dragons Didn’t Just Change Video Games, It Changed The World

Even if you’ve never actually played it, Dungeons & Dragons will have played some role in your gaming life. As is said in the clip above, if you’ve played Skyrim, or World of Warcraft, or any other RPG (or even game with RPG tendencies), you’re simply playing a modern interpretation of a basic set of…

When You Play Ocarina of Time, You Either Win or You Die

I can think of a lot worse things for two bored British kids to be doing than reciting the intro theme to Game of Thrones using ocarina music from the N64 Zelda games. A lot worse. Ocarina of Thrones [YouTube]

Cosplaying As Shepard Is Easy. Try EDI Instead.

It was only yesterday we featured the Iron Woman cosplay of PaleFunnyGhost, but that was nothing compared to this. She’s also recently done some Mass Effect cosplay, and while everyone else is busy dressing up as Commander Shepard, she went for the less obvious (and difficult) route and dressed up as EDI. The costume is…

Wing Commander’s Creator is Getting Back Into Video Games

Chris Roberts is one of my gaming heroes. I grew up on games like Wing Commander, Strike Commander and Pacific Strike, hooked on Roberts’ insistence that PC games could make story and dialogue as important as visuals and mechanics. Sadly, he’s been away from video games for around a decade now, pursuing a career in…

Hulu on the PlayStation 3 just got a rather fancy new upgrade

Sure, But How Do You Right-Click On An iPhone?

Yes, the whole “Shit [people] Say” thing died a long time ago. And yet it’s been reborn again, if only for an instant, so that we can celebrate the upcoming (likely) announcement of the next iPhone. Hey man, I have been using a Droid for the past couple of years after an ill-advised early switch…

See Steam’s Big Picture Mode In Action (It’s Awesome)

Valve’s new Big Picture mode for Steam sure looks nice in pictures, but how does look, and more importantly work, in action? The official trailer was too busy moving the camera around to let you get a good look, so I figured I’d show you. I recorded this on my PC, but to best simulate…

Slender: The Eight Pages: Short, Crude, And One Of The Scariest Games Of The Year

It’s been two months since the internet first laid eyes on Parsec Productions’ splendidly scary free horror game Slender. In that time, we’ve seen all manner of Slender-related internet fallout. There are tons of videos of people playing the game (and freaking out), and there’s even another version of it in the works using Valve’s…

Why I Buy Weird Games

I really like weird games. Cubivore. Katamari Damacy. Gitaroo Man. As a gamer, some of my favorite experiences are the weirdest ones out there. When I go to the store or preorder games, I preferentially choose the weird ones; the runts of the litter, the ones that people don’t play that often. In the video…

This Artist Makes Even The Horrors of Silent Hill Look Surprisingly Cute

Gorgeous prints of Okami, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy, while always welcomed, are not a rarity. Charming impressions of Pyramid Head, on the other hand, are a lot more rare. And, admittedly, with good reason. Artist Robin E. Kaplan, in her Etsy alias The Gorgonist, is a children’s book illustrator. She also has…

You’ll Have To Pay To Comment On This Handsome New Indie Game Website

Do you like commenting? Do you like it enough… to pay for the privilege? Let’s find out! [Insert Kinja complaint here.] At long last, Brandon Boyer’s Venus Patrol has launched. The website is intended to be a new portal into the world of indie games. It’s headed up by Boyer himself, chair of the Independent…

Woman Uses Kinect To Send Email For The First Time Since Her Stroke Twelve Years Ago

Here’s a heartwarming story: a man named Chad Ruble hacked a Kinect to allow his mom, a stroke victim, to send e-mail for the first time in 12 years. Watch and enjoy. (via Make)

Let’s Lose Weight While Playing Video Games

In today’s fashionably late episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter God Hand BrynnFlynn talks about that old video game weight loss standard, the exercise bike. HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT PLAYING VIDEO GAMES: 1. Buy this bike 2. Buy a hack ‘n slash, action, button masher, or other game that doesn’t require accuracy in aiming…

Steam Users Can Now Buy To The Moon, A Game About Marriage, Memories, And So Much More

To The Moon is now available on Steam, and for its launch week it’ll only run you $7.99 instead of its normal $9.99. $10 gets you the version that also includes the soundtrack. That’s why To The Moon is in the news this week. But that’s not why people keep talking about it. I put…

NFL Punter Chris Kluwe Has Strong Opinions On Gay Marriage. Also, RPGs.

When he isn’t kicking footballs or cursing out Maryland politicians for our friends at Deadspin, Chris Kluwe spends his time playing video games. Lots and lots of video games. Kluwe, who made national airwaves last week when he wrote a passionate letter in defense of gay marriage, is both an NFL punter for the Minnesota…

EA Exec Swears His Company Is Not Evil

At some point, probably after the release of, say, Dragon Age II, lots and lots of people got it in themselves to hate on BioWare. Those who ferociously voiced how crappy they felt the makers of Mass Effect games had become also had a reason: it was EA’s fault. The mega-giant publisher did what it…

Separated At Birth: Lee Van Cleef and Peter Moore?

The Master, and the Dreamcast/EA Sports/EA master. Separated at Birth is pure conjecture. It is not even half-assed genealogical research. Any resemblances are purely coincidental, no matter how hilarious.

Sifl & Olly Triumphantly Return, Review Fake Video Games

Back in 1999 I was surfing through cable channels in the middle of the night and ran across a show on MTV with a cast entirely made up of sock puppets. I fell in love instantly. I recorded every episode on VHS tape, and played them until VHS was no longer a going thing. And…